The Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and the Progressive Economy held a high-level debate on how the EU agenda can reconcile economic growth and social progress after 7 years of economic and social crisis. One of the main speakers was the EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici.
Vice-President of the S&D Group Maria Joao Rodrigues introduced the conference by highlighting the latest developments namely: challenges of peace and security and Islamic radicalism, and the need of reconciliation of growth with social progress. According to Ms Rodrigues the purpose of Progressive Economy (PE) is to link economic experts and the political world to propose alternative economic policies, aligned to progressive thinking and progressive political actions.
Member states’ convergence towards growth is too slow, considering that divergences are still major: unemployment rate, investment capacities pointed out Ms Rodrigues. Finally, the Vice-President would like to see the creation of a social Eurogroup and the completion of the Banking Union whose main purpose should be the equal investment with a proper social dimension in order to tackle the EU’s economic stagnation.
EU Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici started his speech by stating that there is recovery in EU with positive growth, but it is not enough to overcome unemployment. On the Juncker Plan –which according to the Commissioner would never exist without S&D- he added that this plan represents a real change in EU’s response to the crisis by encouraging key investments. Additionally, he promised that the new European Commission will be promoting a different political agenda to ensure that European policy is efficient and responsible, oriented to growth and employment, while embedding flexibility and an innovative kind of balance of structural reforms and proper budgetary policy.
Commissioner supports a serious budgetary policy, but not a budgetary orthodoxy. He referred to the crisis by saying that youth unemployment is unacceptable and unsustainable, although efforts are being made, while he urged MS for more transparency and committed himself to help the MS which will adopt the financial transaction tax. He concluded that it would be feasible a debt to be restructured, but not to be written off, and expressed his conviction that the Troika and its old form of working will and should be changed.